Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Communal CNN-IBN Rants Against Social Media

Since the Assam riots followed by violence at Azad Maidan, exodus of NE
people from many cities and more violence at Lucknow and Allahabad a shrill
campaign is being carried out by both the govt and the Mainstream Media (MSM) to crackdown on Social Media (SM). The ones heaping the most scorn on
SM are none other than the ones from the communal channel of CNN-IBN group. Sagarika Ghose, Ashutosh,
Nikhil Wagle and, of course, Rajdeep Sardesai have been abusing the
Twitterati for quite a long time now. Some of their messages on Twitter can
even be classified as ‘hate speech’ and ‘threats’. There are too many such
tweets for me to reproduce here so anyone who wants to go through those can
scroll their Twitter timeline (yes, it’s legal).

Ever since the govt came to the magic conclusion that it was certain
websites from Pakistan and from India that provoked Muslims to riot and agitate
violently and provoked the NE exodus our MSM has adrenalin rushing through
their spines. GOI has already blocked over 100 such websites from India and
nobody knows which sites those are. The hate-mongers from the MSM also seem to
deeply desire a crackdown on Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Under the guise of
inflammatory content the GOI has probably blacked out many websites which may
have absolutely nothing to do with the riots, rumours or the NE exodus.

CNN-IBN, the hate social media channel, had Thapar the Tool asking the question on August 20 on his
programme: “Should social media be subject to restrictions”? The question is as
evil as the mind that concocted it. We, in the public, should be asking why
CNN-IBN, a highly hateful channel, a channel whose editor compares riots and
states, implies number of deaths determine coverage of riots and whose Social Genius
frequently abuses Hindu icons and even Indian males in general shouldn’t be
shut down altogether. Towards the end of his show The Tool even prods a
panellist from govt repeatedly to answer the question: “Will you take legal action against Twitter?” Such is the utter
contempt for social media which is a huge mass or ordinary men and women.

To my knowledge and all information available the violence at Azad Maidan
wasn’t directly provoked by websites. There is enough evidence that activists
on the ground used images from the web in printed leaflets to mobilise the
protests which led to violence. As for rumour mongering leading to the exodus,
the MSM celebs are probably as guilty of it as much as anyone else. In fact,
reports of arrests in Bangalore indicate mobile operators SMSed the threats and
rumours. The latest report today in HindustanTrolls has this to say: “Cyber security agencies have apparently detected
the hand of radical groups, such as the Popular Front of India (PFI) in Kerala
and Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehad al Islami (HuJI), while tracking SMSs that
led to the exodus of Northeast people. They have been tracking SMSes — not all
troublesome — from all sources. Of them, more than 60 million were sent on
August 13 alone”.

Another report: “The Government has reportedly ordered 80 or more
Internet pages and user-accounts on social networking sites including Facebook,
Google and Twitter to be banned to avoid panic among people of the
North-Eastern region living across India”. Reports NDTV. This must bring endless joy to the MSM and those who campaigned
vigorously for such an action. Here is a twitter transaction between the Social
Genius and Sadanand Dhume (They had earlier battled in a debate on Internet Hindus on AlJazeera).
The response from Dhume is very telling. It is quite evident that these celebs
from the MSM are tired of their spin, their lies and their propaganda being
exposed by many in the SM. They are desperate to regain their monopoly of the
airwaves and continue their free-run without being exposed. In short, they want to be the Tin-pot dictators of media that Dhume describes. And all these spurious arguments from a woman who abuses any and all persons and icons in her stupidity.

From July 18 this site itself was blocked by BSNL. Reasons? Unknown!
For three weeks BSNL users were not able to access this site. There was no
response to two mails that I sent them but before it could go any further they
had restored access, after three weeks. There is an interesting ruling by a
consumer court that should guide the blocking of all sites and maybe that woke
up BSNL to its crime.

MediaNama reports:
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum at Shimoga (Karnataka) has
penalised Airtel for deficiency in
providing Internet access when it blocked torrent sites earlier this year,
following a Madras High Court Order received by Copyright Labs. Ruling in
favour of the complainant, Vinay B, a resident of Shimoga, the consumer forum
has directed Airtel to pay Rs 20,000 to the complainant (and pay interest at 9%
per annum till date of payment), for deficiency in service and for causing
mental agony, and Rs 2,000 towards litigation charges. A copy of the Court’s
order is available here.

Vinay B, a resident of Shimoga, filed a complaint against Airtel,
alleging that while trying to access a torrent site from his mobile phone over
a GPRS connection, he encountered the “Access to this site has been blocked as
per court orders” message, in place of the web page. Following calls and
e-mails to the customer service, Airtel failed to come up with a
satisfactory response, and apparently misinterpreted the Madras High Court
order blocking an entire website instead of a particular film clip,
according to the complainant. Airtel’s nodal officer came up with a response
that the court order did not specify if Airtel should not ban the entire site,
instead…. It noted that for about more than one and half months, the illegal
block was imposed by Airtel as the website was blocked in the last week of May
2012 and the block had been withdrawn from July 15th of 2012.

So even in the extraordinary case of a violation only the relevant
pages need to be blocked and not the entire website. Websites can also be
issued notices to take down pages and I am positive if a real threat is
perceived any website author will oblige by putting nation over self. Regardless
of this it is criminal that the media which should stand up for freedom of
speech delights and thrills in strangling social media. Time will soon
establish the ignorance of both the govt and the MSM that they simply cannot
blame social media for provoking riots or violence or rumours. There is no
solid evidence to prove that and the govt or media hasn’t provided any so far.
The motive for the attacks on NE people, the rumours and threats that forced
their exodus maybe much larger than what is known and reported so far.

Social Media will not replace MSM but sooner than later will become the
more reliable source for news and information. This is what scares the living
daylights out of hysterical celebs like Sagarika, Ashustosh, Wagle, Barkha and
many more. The collective hatred they spew against certain groups and people in
general can compare with the Ku Klux Klan or an elite Neo-Nazi group. A line
from the article: “The art of rumour in the age of digital reproduction” in The Hindu pretty much sums up their desperation: “Older media like television remain powerful
but increasingly fragile — hence the nervous hysterics of television anchors”.
Social Media has truly arrived.

These Traitors should be packed off to the Moon i mean Jupiters/Saturns moon for good as they dont deserve any place here on earth. They will sell their Kith and Kin for Money. Dynasty Boot Lickers/Sycophants of first order and AntiNationals to the core

I do not know how many who read this have worked with journalists, but whoever has, will know that journalists are intoxicated with the power they imagine they have over people's opinions. And I say this having been involved with them as a Public Relations guy.

Wary politicians, policemen, businessmen, public relations executives fawn over them constantly, trying to cater to their every whim and fancy. This deludes journalists into believing they know what is best for everyone, and that they are really powerful. After all, how often do you see politicians bowing to someone? All this results in their own prejudices becoming the one absolute fact in the world - everyone else is a moron.

And it is easy to corrupt journalists. It is not just money that they want. They want more power. Stroke their egos, agree with them on everything, invite them to exclusive high class parties, control access to selective and exclusive leaks, and reclusive leaders... many more ways available. Get them used to this drug called power, and watch them rush to do your bidding to get their next fix.

Why do you think so much of the English media is busy fellating a certain political party? The party's powerful, suave, Hinglish speaking, rich and well connected top brass represent what these below average journalists want to be, and want to be seen with. And they are quite happy to use whatever means they have to do so. Naturally, the Hinglish party knows this and uses this to their benefit.

So these fellows seek validation for all their actions from the Hinglish party. And our good Hinglish party people make sure that our dear journalists know when they utter anything except what they are told to, on their channels. Journalists who have plenty of inside leaks from a specific party, are usually on the payroll of the party and only leaking what they are told to.

On the other hand, much of the communal party has people who talk and behave like uneducated goatherds, are brash, and speak english like a 'vernacular ghati'. Not something that the journalist wants to be. Would you want to be like Prakash Javadekar? Why such people are allowed to interact with anyone outside the party I will never understand. They use different tactices to get through to the vernacular media. Because they don't have the ability to use tactics beautifully used by the biggest secular party.

Things get worse down the ladder with the press. Journalists take money, flats, all expenses paid trips, booze and all sorts of gifts. Heck, some even get their bills paid by their political or business owner. And then, the investors in the channel or paper have their own political agenda, business deal or revenue that needs to be achieved. And so, they have their own sweet deals going with party top brass.

Nevermind imposing controls on the social media, more important is the need to

1. Impose complete transparency on shareholding details of all media outlets. Even small and foreign shareholders must be named. If the foreign shareholder is a company, its shareholders must be named. A lot of skeletons will come tumbling out of this particular cupboard.

2. Expose other business interests of the top investors/owners in all media outlets. Many have businesses that have a lot to do with dealing with governments. Infact, the media outlet is merely a tool to ensure that the other businesses run without interference from greedy politicians. Having a media outlet of one's own also helps politicians a lot. Why do you think so many politicians own a media outlet or two?

3. Expose how much is spent in advertising by the government in which media outlet. There are plenty of interesting patterns to be found here.

The amount of excrement all these points above uncover will raise enough stink to make media (propaganda) outlets very objective and impartial fairly quickly.

u think it is that easy? u think that all of a sudden the media will become pure? it is easy to criticise them. but i wonder, will it be easy to run a news channel on pan india level by showing impartial news? i dont think so. compromises have to b done. whether or not country goes to hell or not that is secondary for media. and yes the media is powerfull. only few people come to such forums and read and understand. a greater majority still believes the media.and that is the sad part. there is an unwritten emergency going on in our country. what to show and how to show are already manipulated. i wonder if mediaguys also indulge in blackmailing the govt people to gain favours. nd you know, nothing will change. the way the media is going ga ga over this crap movie ek tha tiger and blocking the more important news about coal scam and north east episode(where the govt failed to protect its own citizens) etc is evidence of their lowest order of standard of media reporting.

Cleaning up of the ownership of media outlets will eliminate organisation level bias of the kind seen on our great news channels, where the diktat from the top is to suck up to a party for various reasons. Look at the crap that Fox News spouts all day in the US. And then, petty corruption by journalists gets taken care of.

Heck in regional newspapers these days, all pretenses are gone. Sales staff attend business press conferences instead of journalists. Poor business journalists have been deprived of their payoff by cunning owners who want to get the money directly from the client - they don't trust their blackmailer extortionist jholawallas. And so, press releases only get printed if the advertiser commits to spend money on an ad campaign in the newspaper.

And I am sure our political beat reporters are looking forward to election season in many states. The top bunch will easily squeeze several years' worth of salaries out of the state election. And the money will truly be flowing in the Lok Sabha elections this time. It is like a special Diwali that comes every 5 years. And guess which party will be spending big time in 2014. Coffers will be full to the brim by then.

Looks like twitter censoring has already begun. Anything entered in twitter's searchbox yields a blank page or causes it to hang. I can view my account or others' pages individually, but can't search for anything. Is anyone else having the same problem....my ISP is Airtel

Just an hour ago I read the news of govt cracking down on social media in the online Hindustan Times. I posted a comment about this being the latest in Sibal's old game of censoring the internet since the social media hadn't been too kind to our dear rulers lately. I the same comment I asked how many of the Assam, Bombay and Lucknow rioters used the internet and how many were influenced by Friday sermons. Surprise, surprise, this comment disappeared in double quick time.

Great Ravi.Your continued effort in exposing "the paid journos and MSM" looks to be having some effect. I can see the sense of frustration and anger. It was great fun to read RS going For a steak. Wondered if it was Japanese or African import, well done or rare? More funny to read when he bids good night with his heartfelt wishes. Poor Sagarika has now proved that she is a devout Hindu. How much blood you want to suck of these creatures, many will ask.My view- GO FOR KILL.

Excellent and well researched article, Ravi, as usual. If only I could reply to Rajdeep's contempt on Twitter where he asks people to f-off for being called "paid media", well my reply would be "Rajdeep-U r worse than a whore, as she just douses the fires of Lust in return for money, but U & ur wife & ur ilk in MSM rouse the fires of hatred in d minds of ur own community - Hindus, against Muzzies, in return for crumbs thrown at U by ur masters in Power".Hope some one files a PIL against this CNN-IBN channel & court suspends their license indefinitely post 2014.

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